“Three more missions?”

Zhao Luo said while leaning towards Wu Yang.

“First tell me what I will get for completing the ‘War Cry Challenge’ from the Xin Sect?” 

Zhao Luo asked Wu Yang.

The reason behind this question was because Zhao Luo wanted to calculate his ‘earning’.

‘I already got three rewards from Bellum.’

Zhao Luo shrugged his shoulder while thinking about the rewards he had already gotten.

‘The Crimson Sword: Ifrit.’

‘Technique of the War Sovereign Bellum: Soul Shaking War Cry.’

‘Master Class Sword Style: The Random Sword.’

Zhao Luo looked at the three rewards which were chilling in the storage space of his robe.

Even though Zhao Luo couldn’t hide his happiness while looking at the three items he wanted more.

Thus he wanted to know about the reward that the Sect will give him for completing the ‘Drums of Bellum’ challenge.

Wu Yang was looking at the big smile on Zhao Luo’s face.

“That-“

Wu Yang stopped before he could say another word and looked around.

Then he got closer to Zhao Luo to whisper in his ear.

“I don’t know about that.”

Wu Yang said while backing away. He didn’t want other disciples to think that he doesn’t swing straight.

“Interesting.”

Zhao Luo said as his smile disappeared. 

His happiness was shattered because Wu Yang was busy messing around with him.

“I should hit reward you too. Hmm, what should I reward you with?”

Zhao Luo said while looking through his robe.

Suddenly he brought out his fist and lightly hit it on Wu Yang’s head.

“Ouch.”

“You…”

Wu Yang had only told the truth as he didn’t know about the reward from the Sect for clearing the missions.

“So that’s how you treat your benefactor.”

Wu Yang said to Zhao Luo while increasing his pace.

“Wait, at least tell me about the other challenges.”

Zhao Luo shouted as Wu Yang was trying to run away while ignoring Zhao Luo.

After a while of shouting and chasing Wu Yang, they were once again walking side by side.

‘This is nice.’

Zhao Luo thought while looking at Wu Yang.

Wu Yang gave him a more friendly feeling than the others. 

Zhao Luo felt like he was walking alongside his best friend.

“So, what are the other challenges that I have to clear?”

Zhao Luo asked Wu Yang as this completing the challenges was more important to him for now.

“Two of them are in the Training Area. They are quite similar to the Drums of Bellum but they can’t compare to its difficulty.”

Wu Yang answered Zhao Luo.

Zhao Luo went into deep thought as he did remember seeing two other rings with instruments on them. But as for how the instruments looked like, he couldn’t remember that part.

This was because both times when Zhao Luo went to the Training Area, he was more focused on the drums thus he couldn’t examine the other two rings more seriously.

‘Hmm.’

Zhao Luo wondered for a while.

“What about the third challenge?”

Zhao Luo asked Wu Yang who had only told about the first two challenges and left the third one out.

“The third is…”

Wu Yang stopped as he looked around again.

Zhao Luo and Wu Yang were already outside Zhao Luo’s hut.

Wu Yang signaled Zhao Luo like telling him that he will talk when they are in his room.

Thus Zhao Luo entered his hut while Wu Yang was behind.

After entering the hut and taking their seats in Zhao Luo’s room, Wu Yang started talking.

“Let’s start from the beginning.”

Wu Yang said as he looked at Zhao Luo.

“There is a famous rumor in the trainee area. This rumor is directly related to the third remaining challenge.

Zhao Luo raised his eyebrow.

“Then the third challenge may turn out to be a dud.”

Zhao Luo presented his idea.

How could a challenge be real if it’s based on a rumor?

“Indeed, it may not even be real.”

Wu Yang confirmed Zhao Luo’s statement.

“But what if it is real?”

Wu Yan continued.

This caused Zhao Luo to give the fourth mission another thought.

After a while, he looked at Wu Yang.

“What’s the challenge?”

Zhao Luo asked him.

Even though the challenge may turn out to be a fake, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn about it. Thus Zhao Luo asked about it from Wu Yang.

“The challenge is defeating a secret disciple. The secret disciple has been hidden here by the first elder for years and he is yet to be defeated.”

Wu Yang said with squinted eyes.

“The rumor is also similar to the challenge that there is a core disciple who is watching over the trainee disciples.”

Wu Yang said with his index finger pointing upwards.

“Interesting. How will we find this ‘secret disciple’ from among the thousands of disciples in the trainee hall?”

Zhao Luo found the challenge to be very interesting but the details of the challenge itself were quite hard to match.

‘Where will we find this disciple?’

Zhao Luo wondered as he looked at Wu Yang who was delaying the answer.

“Hmm, who said we have to find him?”

Wu Yang said with a calm face. But this was shocking for Zhao Luo.

“Don’t tell me you know who this disciple is?”

Zhao Luo questioned Wu Yang in excitement.

It would be really easy for Zhao Luo to clear this mission if he could just know the identity of this disciple.

Wu Yang smiled as he got up and turned around.

Zhao Luo was facing Wu Yang’s back.

‘You don’t have to act so mysteriously. It’s not like you are the disciple.’

Zhao Luo thought but he didn’t have enough courage to ruin Wu Yang’s moment.

“No.”

Wu Yang said with a smile that Zhao Luo couldn’t see.

“I don’t know his identity. BUT…”

Wi Yang turned around and looked directly at Zhao Luo.

“There is an even better way to complete the challenge.”

Wu Yang told Zhao Luo.

“What could be better than directly challenging him?”

Zhao Luo asked in disbelief.

“You can just defeat all the disciples in the trainee hall one by one.”

Wu Yang said with a smile as if he had just solved their most important hurdle.

Wu Yang closed his eyes and nodded showing that he was quite amused by his intelligence.

“You are seriously saying that.”

Zhao Luo said while closing his hand to make a fist.

Zhao Luo was barely stopping himself from punching the hell out of Wu Yang.

“Yes. Are you surprised that I solved your crisis so easily?”

Wu Yang said like he didn’t realize that he was just making the crisis bigger with his dumb idea.

“I think you should go rest now. I will clear the other two challenges first then think about this challenge.”

Zhao Luo shared his decision with Wu Yang.

Zhao Luo wanted to become an outer disciple as soon as possible.

He couldn’t waste his time while challenging the thousands of disciples in the trainee hall one by one.

Even if he defeated a hundred disciples every day, it will still take him around ten weeks just to challenge all of them.

‘Can I even win again a hundred disciples in a day?’

Zhao Luo thought as even this way sounded impossible for him.

Zhao Luo shook his head as he stopped thinking about the last challenge and the secret disciple.

He looked at Wu Yang who was getting ready to leave.

“Well, I am going now.”

Wu Yang said as he left Zhao Luo’s room.

Seeing Wu Yang leave his room, Zhao Luo took a deep breath.

Then Zhao Luo lied down on his bed and closed his eyes.

He removed all thoughts from his mind and just breathed calmly over and over again.

Zhao Luo wasn’t going to sleep but he wanted to try something new.

After a moment, Zhao Luo had entered his mental world, the dark space as he opened his eyes to look around.

“So the old man had fooled me. Or did he?”

Zhao Luo blamed the old man for something.

It was the position that Zhao Luo would sit in before starting his meditation to enter the dark space.

Finally, he knew that sitting in lotus position wasn’t even helping him in any way.

“Tsk.”

Zhao Luo clicked his tongue as he really couldn’t member the old man telling him to sit in the lotus position to enter his Mental World.

It was just his idea as he had been exposed to such baseless things before.

Outside Zhao Luo’s hut.

While Zhao Luo had entered his dark space, Wu Yang who had left Zhao Luo’s room had a smile on his face as he walked away from there.

“He isn’t easy to fool.”

Wu Yang said to himself.

“Hahahaha.”

Wu Yang started to laugh while remembering the discussion he had with Zhao Luo regarding the secret disciple.

Back in the Dark Space.

Zhao Luo who was cursing himself because he had to suffer a backache every time he woke up from his training and got up from the lotus position finally knew that he could enter this place with just thought if he concentrated enough regardless of the position he was in.

‘I could enter my dark space even while sh*tting.’

Zhao Luo thought as he started looking around the darkness.

There were two rings were still there that he had formed the last time to train on them.

The drums were still there too.

“Hmm, I must have forgotten to disperse them.”

Zhao Luo said as he waved his hand while thinking about clearing the stages and the drum instruments as he had no use for them anymore.

‘FWOOSH.’

As though the rings and the drums could hear Zhao Luo’s thoughts. They turned into shadows and disappeared the next moment.

Zhao Luo looked around the calm and dark place.

Finally, his mental world looked clean again.

“Wait, what’s this?”

Zhao Luo’s sight stopped on a shiny shield as he stared at it while questioning its presence in the dark space.

Zhao Luo walked towards the shield and stopped in front of it.

“Hmm, Drion.”

Zhao Luo said while placing his hand over the name of the shield.